Tuesday, May 25, 2010

This past month has been one of intense, final preparations for the Young Adult Friends Gathering that will take place this weekend in Wichita, Kansas. We on the planning committee have juggled the logistics of food preparation and where to purchase necessary supplies; the ins and outs of insurance regulations; putting together information packets and nametags; and making plans for housing conference participants. On top of this, we have made a concerted effort to get the word out, so that all YAFs could learn about the conference and consider whether they were being led to attend.

As I write to you today, we still have many details ahead of us: rides to and from the airport, bus station and train station; housing assignments; food preparation; and more. However, despite the details that remain, I feel confident in saying that we are on course. This gathering is happening. The rest is up to God.
It has always been up to God, of course. It was God who brought us together as a planning committee; who gave each of us a heart for this ministry of reconciliation among Friends. It was God who guided us and showed us what our theme was to be - drawing on 1 John 1:1-3 - Bearing Witness to the Word Among Us: Witness, Testimony and Transformation. It is God who has raised up Dave Williams of Barclay College to be our main speaker; God spoke to his heart, and led him to share of himself and his experience of Christ with Young Adult Friends. It is God who is drawing approximately seventy-five Friends from across North America to come together this weekend in Wichita, to see what love can do - so that we may be witnesses to God's mercy and power, to the ways in which God is working among Friends across the continent.

This is the faith that we on the planning committee had to have in order to stay sane during this planning process: That God is in control, guiding and caring for us as we seek to be instruments for God's purposes. We have sensed God's providence in the way the Spirit has spoken to each of our hearts - not only those of us on the planning committee, but also our speaker, works hop leaders, Bible study leaders, pastoral care team members; indeed, to all of us who will be in attendance this weekend. We have been called together for a purpose, and I am waiting with baited breath to see what God will do with us as we are gathered in God's name.

Please pray for all of us - planners, leaders, participants, young adults and older adults. Pray that we may know Christ's presence in our midst as a community, and that we may be brought into true unity in the Spirit. May God's Word be revealed to us - let us hear it and see it and touch it, so that we may be witnesses to the whole world of what we have experienced of the Truth.